...wow, that laker team last night was brutal...seemed very disinterested...hopefully there is nothing left in the tank for them this year.

Sometime in 4th quarter, it felt like Lakers just started going through the motions. It was back and forth for entire game. JJ came in and they lost their will. By then Jackson had to give starters some rest. Blake and Fisher were absolutely destroyed by Mavericks.

Frankly, this felt like December game. Lakers in essence said "Didn't have it tonight guys. No real need to break a sweat making a comeback that will inevitably fall short. Let's get out numbers and save energy for the strip club".

They've looked that way all year. Simplebay would tell you they always look that way going into the playoffs, but it was different this year. The "try" was there in a lot of those games they lost towards the end.

This is not a very good Laker team. All the pieces are in place, but something is missing.

Like I said in another thread, three straight years of playing in the last game of the season takes a psychological toll. You forget how bad you want/what it takes to get there when it happens so much. This team is still incredibly talented, easily good enough to win it all. The lack of an iron will and atrocious three-point shooting doomed them last night.

I think the Lakers sorta figured Dallas would do their usual 1st or 2nd round fold like the last couple years.

At the same time, Mavs seemed to have found a backbone and how to win a road playoff game.


That said, I've been beaten down to many times as a Mavs fan and I'm gonna keep my excitement in check.

They do that because Pau Gasol is a ***** when things don't go his way and he has to guard someone with HOF talent.

I don't disagree SportsGuy...I'd rather have Marc than Pau at this point. He's been pretty worthless the entire post-season. Not sure why he's reverted back into 2008 Finals-p***y mode.

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but something is missing.

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Need to play Walton more.

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They've looked that way all year. Simplebay would tell you they always look that way going into the playoffs, but it was different this year. The "try" was there in a lot of those games they lost towards the end.

This is not a very good Laker team. All the pieces are in place, but something is missing.

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What about when they ran off something like 21 of 22 wins right after the all-star break? Didn't look like they were "going thru the motions then...they, like the entire nation did, took the Mavs for granted and they got punched in the mouth. The trick will be to see if they can turn it on and get out of the hole the mavs dug for them. 2-3 years ago it'd be a definitive yes...this year, I'm not so sure.

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The "try" was there in a lot of those games they lost towards the end.

This is not a very good Laker team. All the pieces are in place, but something is missing.

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This.

Over the last couple of years you could turn on a Lakers game an in the first 5 min know if it was worth watching or not. Some nights they would just zone out and you could tell early on that they weren't going to win. This year is different though. There have been a number of games where I was positive they would win because they were playing with poise and effort--and then they lost.

I don't know if it's age, or mental fatigue, or the loss of hunger, or Pau's women troubles, but this team doesn't have it.

That and it seems Dallas was put together to beat the Lakers. Maybe it was lucky that they never had to play them before.

amercer, i knew in the first 5 minutes of game 2 that the lakers weren't winning it. it was pretty easy to tell

[This message has been edited by Simplebay (edited 5/6/2011 6:14p).]